The Transfer of the Holy Relics of the First-martyr and Archdeacon Stephen (5th c.)
Dormition Fast. Abstinence from meat and foods that contain meat.
Read
1 Corinthians 11:8-22; Matthew 17:10-18
Today’s Gospel shows Jesus wearied by the constant questioning that reveals one thing: His disciples don’t understand his identity. They instead go around asking for signs. In this case, the sign they are looking for is the second coming of Elijah. If someone is driving in a foreign country, the signs are there, but if you don’t know how to read the language, the meaning of the signs are lost on the driver and likely, that driver is lost as he tries to find his way, groping in the darkness.
Jesus wants us to learn to read signs better, instead of asking for new ones that we are liable to misunderstand. Later, when he casts out demons by healing the epileptic, he does something similar to Elijah, who raised the widow’s son from the dead. Here he casts out a demon of a boy, restoring him to health from the fits and tremors of epilepsy. Jesus, in crying out, “O faithless generation,” could also be understood as an illiterate generation. They can’t read the signs and apprehend the meaning that he does this in virtue of his power as the Son of God. He is the God who sent down fire on the wet altar over and against the altar of Baal. To learn this way of understanding Jesus as the Saviour will help to shake the tremors of unbelief that cut through our heart every time we sin, every time we have doubt, every time we ask for a sign. Perhaps a better prayer is not for a sign, but rather, to help my unbelief, help my way of reading.